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Biesanz Stone Company

Processing Facility

A tour of the processing plant was led for us by Bill Monahan and Frank VanKelsie (I'm sorry if I have misspelled your name). The operation starts with blocks that have been removed from the hill just behind the plant. The rock that they process is geologically classified as a dolomite, specifically Oneota Dolomite, but it meets all of the industrial specifications of marble. This hardness means that it can be polished nicely as well as made into structural elements like columns and floors as well as load bearing walls.

The blocks from the Quarry are brought into the saw building where this diamond tipped saw cuts it into thinner slabs where the overhead crane picks them up and moves them to the next step. The rails you can see below the blocks keep the blocks off the floor when the saw cuts the slabs. It takes the week to move out the thin slabs and refill with the blocks. The saw is started and run by computer the whole weekend so that on Monday morning the slabs are ready to be moved out. The saw cuts about four inches down into the block at a time at the rate of ten feet a minute. When the saw has made a full pass through the stone it drops another four inches and makes a return pass. The marks you can see at the end of the blocks are drill holes. The blocks are sawn in the quarry that you can see on the previous page, each about 200 feet long. Then a series of drill holes is made to break the long blocks up into sizes that can be removed and transported. The thickness of the blocks are determined by the natural layering of the rock and can be lifted out with forklifts.

Here an overhead crane loads the slab on a tilting bead before being moved through a polisher. The major product from this plant is rock slabs for a veneer finish of buildings. These slabs are about 2 inches thick and polished using diamond grit polishers with water used to cool and lubricate the rock.



	Some of the stone is made into window or door frames at stations like the one in the photo at the left. A milling machine can also turn columns or other structural elements depending on the needs of the customer. Because of the cost of the finished stone most of it is used in high end commercial buildings, banks, public buildings and churches. It is too expensive to be used in most residential applications. Below are some of the finished slabs, including the ones on the right with the tongue and grove details that allow them to be fit together without apparent seams.

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